Sage BCG820BSSUK the Smart Grinder Pro Coffee Grinder - Silver

Product Information

I don't think it's possible to grind hard coffee beans silently, but the sound of the smart grinder pro grinding is not at all a deafening noise, in fact, I don't find it to be loud at all, and the aforementioned hopper lid gasket I think is partly to thank for that. Some grinders are specialists, there are some grinders that are made specifically for manual brew methods, and many that are made specifically for espresso, but this is an all-rounder. For me, the Smart Grinder Pro is the best all-rounder grinder for the money, overall, especially if you also want to be able to grind for espresso, with standard baskets. This is the aforementioned internal burr adjustment, and it's such a clever, and useful feature, and one I very rarely hear anyone talking about. So if you have one grinder which creates a huge range of particle sizes at one grind setting, and another grinder that creates a much more uniform range, meaning more of the particles are a similar size, you're going to get better cup quality.

If spending a few hundred pounds on a coffee grinder is a bit over the top for your budget, there are some lower-cost options that will produce a good cup of espresso and will combine well with any machine that doesn't have an integrated grinder. This article explains more in detail: If you're someone who's not used coffee grinders in the past, you'll probably find there's a shorter learning curve when it comes to getting used to grinding your own coffee with the Smart Grinder Pro vs many similarly or lower-priced grinders. The Smart Grinder Pro is an all-rounder grinder, It'll grind for manual brew methods such as Aeropress, pour-over, stove top & cafetiere, and it will also grind for espresso, with traditional or pressurized baskets. If you've not used a grinder before, you might be slightly intimidated when you first get any coffee grinder out of the box, as grinding coffee beans seems like quite a geeky & complex thing to do, to the uninitiated. Looking at all the dials and buttons on the SGP I must admit did set the alarm bells going, to begin with, but I soon discovered how simple it is.The other thing I wasn't quite sure about was grind time or grind amount. What this relates to is dose, which means the amount of coffee we “dose” into our espresso basket, Aeropress, or V60 filter, for example. The grind size is separate, there’s not one programmable setting for dose and grind size. I usually start off at 12, and go from there based on flow rate. I’m looking for 36g of espresso from 18g of coffee, in 28-32 seconds. So if it flows faster than that, I’ll go slightly finer – and if it flows slower than that, I’ll go slightly more course. But if you’re not weighing your beans, you’re not in full control of the dose, which is an important factor for getting the desired extraction. Another factor is tamp pressure, try to keep the tamp pressure the same each time.

It didn't take me too long, however, to realize that this is just because the paddles on the side of the portafilter have to be parallel with the sides of the cradle, and because of where these are on the Gaggia Classic, you just have to put the portafilter in with the handle over to one side. As you can see, I needed to insert the portafilter with the handle to the left. I know this grinder inside out, I very much doubt there could be any question about this grinder that I haven't answered many times, so hopefully, I'll cover all of your questions, and more, in this review, but if I haven't done, please use the “comment” feature at the bottom of the post to ask, I always respond to comments. Sage Smart Grinder Pro Nutshell Review

Grind intelligently with Dosing iQ™ technology

So my opinion with hoppers is to use them as temporary storage only and keep your beans in air-tight storage, preferably in a cool and relatively dark location (such as a cupboard, or on the moon, whichever is easiest). Don't do what most people do, which is to open your beans and empty them into the hopper as soon as you get them, and leave them in there until you run out. If you're doing this, you may as well leave them in the bag and just leave the bag open, as the hopper (any hopper, not just the hopper on the Sage grinders) doesn't protect against the environment.

I was using the double shot basket, so it was obvious to me that I needed to press the 2 shots button. By the way, the reason the text “shots/cups” appears under this button, if you're grinding for espresso the digital screen will display “shots” allowing you to toggle between 1 and 2 cups, for the single or double shot baskets, and if you're grinding for manual brew methods this will change on the screen to “cups”. Have I mentioned how smart this grinder is!? 😉 For example, I’m usually looking for 18g for a double shot, and I usually start out with a grind size of about 12, and a timing of about 17.5 seconds, which will usually get me close to 18g, and I’ll weight it, and then either take a bit out or grind a bit more. The timing will change from bean to bean, which is why you can’t purely rely on timing. With up to 60 intuitive grind size settings, Sage’s programmable burr coffee grinders maximise the potential of any brew. Choose between 'cups' for French Press or filter and 'shots' for Espresso to get the right dose for the coffee you're brewing. Grind the coffee beans directly into a portafilter or an air-tight container.I'd previously made the assumption (as this has happened to me many times with integrated grinder machines) that it was an issue to do with the humidity in the hopper changing in integrated grinder machines like the Barista Express or the Oracle when the machine is turned on, but I found that the changes in humidity in my studio, which is a fairly normal environment, changed by as much as about 12% during a period of about an hour, both outside the hopper, and inside the hopper. GRIND SETTINGS With so many intuitive grind settings to choose from, you can create perfection from Espresso to French Press. What I mean by this, is that the hopper on the Smart grinder pro is great as hoppers go, in fact overall it's probably one of the best hoppers I've seen, but hoppers should in my opinion be used as temporary storage only, and not as permanent storage solutions.

Don't make the mistake I did, initially, by the way, by thinking that you need to just choose whatever dose the machine wants to give you. You'll see a default grind time come up on the display, you can simply adjust this with the grind amount knob, to get your desired dose. The reason for this is that the environment, whether it's in your kitchen or in your office, isn't the best place for coffee beans – and if the beans are in your hopper, they're in your environment. The hopper doesn't give any protection from oxygen or from fluctuations in temperature and humidity. These things will mess with your beans, and you don't want things messing with your beans. Fresh is best. The quality and precise dose of freshly ground beans is key to creating great tasting third wave specialty coffee. It comes pre-set to 6, and theoretically, this is the optimum setting, and the idea of being able to adjust is mainly so that over the years as the burrs wear you can take it finer to keep grinding at the same fineness. In reality, though, I find that at the factory pre-set 6, there's a bit more fine grinding range to be had by dropping it to grind size 5 if you find you need it. Just keep in mind, though, that if you go finer than that you're not actually achieving anything. Anyway, this question is ringing in my ears as it's asked so often, and there is no right answer. The optimum grind size will depend on the beans you're using, the brew method you're using, the particular espresso machine you're using for example, and even specifically what baskets you're using.

Reliability

Dialing in is about bringing out the best flavours that your coffee beans have to give. Older supermarket beans, in my humble opinion, lose lots of their flavour by being roasted to a crisp (as these kinds of beans are usually roasted particularly dark) and any delicate flavour notes remaining are likely to be given up to the oxidation process over the period of time that passes before they're used. If I've just confused you re baskets, pressurized baskets come with the most entry-level domestic espresso machines, They're easy & convenient, but they don't give the user the ability to tweak things towards perfection, which is known as “dialing in”. If you want that level of control, you'll need standard, traditional baskets, and working with this kind of basket requires more of the grinder. This is why blade grinders and also the cheapest burr grinders I mentioned earlier that have these flat “grinding wheels” aren't ideal, as both of these options will (from my experience) create a wild range of particle sizes. If you obliterate a bean by crushing it with flat, mainly blunt wheels, the bean will break into much fewer uniform pieces than with specifically designed burr geometry created to ensure a smaller range of particle sizes. Included Accessories: Portafilter Cradle–Small 50-54mm Portafilter Cradle–Large 58mm Grinds Container with Lid and Sealing Cap Conical Burr Cleaning Brush In other words, it was the environment that the coffee machine was in, in which the changes were happening, not the hopper, but the hopper wasn't providing any protection against this change in humidity.